THE NOSE TACKLE NOBODY OUTRUNS.

Brett Favre reveals Parkinson's diagnosis during congressional hearing.

Favre, who played 20 NFL seasons, including 321 consecutive regular-season and playoff games, estimated during a 2022 interview on the "The Bubba Army" radio show that he suffered “thousands” of concussions during his football career.

Parkinson's disease is a condition that causes deterioration in the brain and affects motor skills. According to the Parkinson's Foundation, over one million people in the United States live with the disease and nearly 90,000 are diagnosed each year.

Mr Favre had the right attitude toward continuing to play football. "When any job loses all elements of fun, it's time to quit."  And when it was time to walk away, "the toughest guy on the field wasn't afraid to cry."

But what a run it has been for Packer Nation.  "Aaron Rodgers :: Brett Favre as (a) Bart Starr :: Lamar McHan (b) Don Horn :: Bart Starr."  The early returns on Jordan Love :: Aaron Rodgers are along the lines of Rodgers :: Favre and Starr :: McHan, although it's early, and the injury reports accumulate.

Mr Favre's medical condition is another cautionary tale about life after football.  There was the early retirement of Packer defensive back Sam Shields.

"Shields missed the final 15 regular-season games in 2016 and all of the postseason after sustaining his fifth documented concussion near the end of the Packers’ opener at the Jacksonville Jaguars in September."

The concussion protocol is relatively recent.  It wasn't around when WMAQ's Mike Adamle was winning the Big Ten Player of the Year award -- out of Northwestern, back in the Bo Schembechler, Woody Hayes era.  Mr Adamle has not been at the sports desk for a year, and the concussions he suffered as a Wildcat and later as a Chicago Bear might have caught up with him.

Would he go back and play football if he got a do-over?  "'I would do it again,' he said. 'I would tell you what, though, I would work harder in the offseason to find out about things that protect you when you play.'"

The concussion protocol, perhaps one such protection.  It's written in Mr Adamle's blood, and its implementation might give Mr Shields a better life years from now.

Serious Thinkers have engaged in Serious Thinking about the future of football.

The American Conservative's David Gornoski puts it this way.  "Our reckoning with violence will cause the NFL to go the way of the circus."  The circus analogy is probably wrong, as elephants are for kids to ride, they're not whipped during their acts, and anyway, as long as there are jugglers and acrobats, there will be circus.

In the reluctance of parents to let their youngsters go out for football there well might be a long farewell under way.  "With school districts going to seven man football with fewer kids going out for the sport, and upscale parents keeping their kids off the gridiron for fear of concussion, and with there being some reluctance among professional basketball players to resume the season in the midst of the protests of police brutality, it's just a matter of time before the penny drops for football players."  Youngsters and their parents can see the challenges football players, even the most durable, face entering middle age, and weigh the risks accordingly.

Brett Favre, one more cautionary tale for the youngsters.  Fair winds.